Jim Steinberg, an award-winning nature photographer and Denver Center for the Performing Arts trustee, spent five weeks on the road taking the photographs that set the scene for the company’s world-premiere presentation of “Mama Hated Diesels,” running through May 9 at the Stage Theatre (303-893-4100).

Steinberg covered 8,179 miles and took 7,738 photos, 150 of which are displayed during the production. “They are America’s gypsies,”
he said of truckers. “They are hard-working, proud, and most of them are really nice people,” he said.

Here are seven of those photos, all copyright 2010, Jim Steinberg Photography. The descriptions are in Steinberg’s own words:

“I knew there would be a song about looking through rear-view mirrors, and I shot this in the Mojave Desert. I was shooting this while were were driving at about 75 mph, and this guy is just cookin’ right up on me. It gives you a great sense of motion and being overtaken. Plus you get a real good feel for the desert in the late afternoon.”

“This is inside of Dan Gibson’s truck. He’s from a family-run company in Aurora and makes weekly runs from Denver to California and back. If you look closely, you can see we were moving at about 75 mph … and shooting in a moving, bouncing truck while standing up isn’t easy. But we had a good time.”

“Morris, Ill., is home to one of the last great independent truck stops. They’re a vanishing breed. This is Dan DeGroot, a driver from Pound, Wis.”

“I love this, with the moon coming up in western Arizona. What really makes it is the remaining light in the day bouncing off and hitting the rear of that truck. This is the middle of nowhere, and it really shows what a very solitary profession this is.”

“This was just outside of Groom, Texas, on I-40 in the north Texas panhandle. Once you leave Amarillo heading east to Oklahoma City, you’re really just out in the Big Empty.”

I love it when I can find a ‘Welcome’ sign and the area behind it is truly emblematic of the state. Here it’s these wonderful mountains behind a welcome sign that’s been riddled with bullet holes. You see a lot of signs in the West that have been used for target practice.”

“I did a whole series that tried to show the front of trucks in a more personal fashion. This is one, with its low, wide-angle lens, has this very demonic feel. And sometimes when you’re driving along the road and you see one of these coming up behind, you feel that way about it, too. It’s a Peterbilt shot in Coachella, Calif.”

“This is Joe and Susan Kosnik of Corfu, N.Y., and I ran into them out on I-40 in western Arizona. On this day, they were hauling a load of lettuce to Dallas. And two weeks later, I ran into them again on I-80 in Hillsdale, Wyo. It’s a very nomadic life.”

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